MasukOn a whim, I try to roll him over, not expecting the iron cage of his arms to so much as shift. But he flips easily with a soft noise of surprise. I pull back, worried.“Apologies.” He smiles ruefully and taps the bandage on his face—on the side I rolled him to. “I think this will take some getting
“Oh.” I glance at Amval. Cirocco waits by his shoulder, clearly about to demand something similar. All the pressures of life suddenly descend back into place. With Kaloni dead, Amval has no rival for the crown. There’s going to be a coronation and then months of cleaning up what happened here. I’m g
Ingrid“The Goddess’ will is often far more complicated than any of us can guess,” Halit says, blood streaked on her cheek from the arrow she took to the shoulder before fleeing the altar.Laughter ripples through the temple. I know, from my second march up here, that the healthy hold up the wounded
And that is his mistake. The heartbeat he wastes on gloating gives me just enough time to slash at his unprotected throat, tearing through fur and old scar tissue.Blood waterfalls onto me, hot and fast. I wriggle out of the way before he crumples. Dead.Or at least it seems so. My halved vision mak
Amval“She will never be ready to marry my brother!” I shout as I storm into the packed temple, a sword lifted high above my head and a trail of allies collected from every corner of the palace behind me.Gasps ripple through the crowd, buoying my name forward. Ingrid turns, her jaw falling slack. T
I suck in a breath through my gritted teeth as Halit intones about the complexities of fate, how perhaps Amval dying was all part of Her cosmic plan for Cirocco and I to end up together. Maybe it was part of Her cosmic plan for me to punch a holy woman in the mouth.No. Joli is counting on me. Light
Vito preens like a cat presenting a caught mouse. “My sister married a Hajni foot soldier. Infuriated my father, but she writes to me sometimes of what is actually occurring on our borders.”“Third-hand information, then.”“But information all the same,” Vito insists. “She says the fighting came fro
XanderI expected many things when I pulled Finn away from the other soldiers after the battle. I thought he might ignore me entirely, might flee, might do exactly what he seemed to be doing a moment ago and refuse to give me any kind of answer.In no world did I expect the words that just dropped f
It’s for the best. Even if he keeps adjusting his feet to stand as carefully on the shadow of the path as he can, protecting plants he doesn’t even know I care about.“Fine, then,” I blurt. “It’s a bet. If I win, we keep our distance. If you win—”“We attempt to look normal.” His smirk is hollow. “F
FinnThe sun is high in the sky by the time I peel my eyes open the next morning. My leg aches, but a second application of that herb shit before we finally collapsed to sleep keeps it from being the nightmare I’m sure it would be otherwise.That, and Xander’s head on my chest, her mouth open with s







